


How to control your teenage team

by oneacearmy



Series: Voltron brotherhood [5]
Category: Assassin's Creed - All Media Types, Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Bleeding Effect, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Gen, M/M, More to add - Freeform, Psychological Trauma, Service Dogs, abandoned hotel, house renovation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-10
Updated: 2020-06-24
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:53:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24635629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oneacearmy/pseuds/oneacearmy
Summary: Set in the assassin's creed au! When Mentor Shirogane started the Voltron initiative he didn't think that we would end up in charge of three barely legal adults and one teenager all living together under the same decaying roof with no privacy and the weight of the future of humanity hanging in their shoulders. He understands the pressure that his assassins are going trough but why did he have to teach them how to behave and work together?There isn't a manual on how to be a father but maybe these logs can help anyone who is having a hard time training and incorporating new recruits.
Relationships: Lance/Shiro (Voltron)
Series: Voltron brotherhood [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1777579





	1. Lesson 5 - Pronouns

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It was totally re-written.

Today I got to meet Pidge after Master Kogane introduce ~~her~~ them into the Voltron initiative with the hopes to get a software guy (person?) into helping us avoid detection and reduce or digital footprint.I'm really good with first impressions but I made the mistake of misgendering them on their first five minutes of them being here and then proceed to do it the rest of the day. I tried to explain that in the brotherhood and in Japan I didn't get much exposure to the LGBTQ community and addressing a person by the pronouns them/they have never happened to me, it was simply a new concept. 

Keith and Lance told me what happened to them. They have been questioning their gender for four years now since they got to experiment with being a girl and a boy and then both and discovered that they were neither, but then the bullying came and the weird stares from everyone around them and the questions and the dysphoria... It has been a long and rocky road for them and I was really worried that I fucked up and that I offended them and would have to work twice as hard to gain their trust.

After the first few times I misgendered them, I stopped addressing them and waited for Pidge to reach out for me before I said anything I shouldn't. Thank god Lance was there and continued the speech and the tour of our Headquarters and what their role on the brotherhood would be and that they would need to train hard every day with me and Keith before going into field missions. I was just hanging at the back ready to intervene if Lance didn't know something or made a mistake.

At the end of the tour, while they were installing their equipment at the old convenience store of the hotel, I decided that I was bound to make mistakes but I had to act on them and make things right, so I approached Pidge and offered them a water bottle to rest from the heavy work and I apologize for everything. I said and quote: 

"Do you know the assassin's creed?"

Nothing is true, everything is permitted." They didn't look up to me

"When we say that everything is permitted we refer to the subjectivity of reality and how that reflects in our opinions and actions but it also means that our choices are our responsibility even if those choices are discordant from our neighbours and cause fights, that's on us" I paused.

When there was no answer I continued "What I'm trying to say is that I'm sorry for misgendering you and that yes, my actions have caused turmoil in our relationship but I know that's on me and I want to apologize and assure you that I'm trying, it's just new to me." 

They accepted my apology and forgave me since they understand that not everyone can magically change from what their eyes see and start referring to them like that and that I for one apologize in a sincere way and not like I accidentally burped but didn't really felt guilty.

I'm sure Pidge and I are going to get along and maybe they could include me in their personal life, maybe I could tell them about the young boy in the Garrison that I have a huge crush on. 

Mentor Takashi Shirogane singing off.


	2. Setting limits

I haven't told this to anyone yet but when Master Keith was just six years old Keith living at the Farm and his relatives had to leave him alone for some time, they would call me and I would babysit him for a few days and even a week. In all that time I learned one thing, you can't just say no to a kid because if you do, they'll comply while you watch them but the moment you leave them alone, they'll run to do the thing you told them not to do. 

Again, I know this for experience, one time when I was babysitting Keith he asked me if he could assist a sleepover that his friend Regris was throwing and since I was a teenager and didn't want his guardians to complain about it or arrest me if things went wrong while Keith was under my care, I told him no. "No, you can't go. I'm simply your babysitter and have zero permissions to give you." He didn't protest and even ate his veggies and went to sleep without a fight but later that night when I went to check on him before heading to sleep myself, I was surprised to see that he wasn't in bed. 

Can you imagine a poor fifteen year old in a military-like order that could end your whole life because you lost the boss's son? Yeah, you can imagine poor young me panicking because the child was nowhere to be seen, I searched all the house including closets, the washing machine and the oven (I was scared and kids tend to hide in the most incredible places) and when I accepted that Keith wasn't in the house it was time to visit Regris parents and ask about the kid. 

Yeah, he was in there and apparently snuck out from the front door, not the window, which was actually impressive since I was on the living room the whole time. Then I learned the most important lesson: DON'T TELL A CHILD NO!. 

Here are some ways to say No without explicitly saying it.   
\- Yes, in another time  
\- Yes, in another place  
\- Yes, I wish we could do that  
\- Yes, If  
\- Yes, to the feeling. 

Now you may ask, what does this has to do with the brotherhood? Well' we are going to take a lot of young adults and teenagers and we have to keep in mind that these kids just turned around their whole life and have to cut all contact with friends, family and lovers and even avoid visiting their childhood home altogether, it can be a hard change for them and we must be prepared to find common ground with this young people. 

Last week I had the opportunity to apply this rule to the new recruits; Lance asked me to rise his title from the rank 6: Disciple to mercenary which we know we can't just do without proof that he has dominated the skill required, in this case, close knife combat but he just keep going on and on that he was acing the training and that he was way ahead of Pidge and Hunk, that he was ready to take the next step but I had to be honest to him and tell him no by saying 

"Yeah Lance, I know you have worked really hard and that improvement in your training is really impressive, Master Keith also told me that you managed to last 10 minutes against him and that isn't an easy feat. Yes, we can rise you if you can hit the 15-minute mark against a Blade of Marmora which you can try in a few days when they come to check on us"

He actually left with a grin on his face and I could sense the new resolve in him to keep training so he could defeat the Blade. 

Hunk came to me a few days later because he wanted to visit his family. His case is a special one, as you know he was stabbed by a member of the Russian staff and Keith had to intervene to put his family in safety, but Hunk was hospitalized and then came to live with us so he didn't saw his family and didn't had any physical proof that they were fine and that the Russian gang didn't do anything to them. So when he came to me begging to see his family again, I couldn't say no. 

"Hunk, family is very important and I would give everything to see mine again so of course, you can go see yours, but as you know we are running a secret organization and you knew when you accepted to join that you couldn't contact your family again. You can go see them if you take Keith with you and you don't interact with them, just go and make sure they are okay maybe even watch them for an hour if you'll like but after that, you have to return here without making your presence known to them."

He did see quite down for the prospect of not saying goodbye to his little sister but later that day Keith reassured me that I made the right call and that Hunk appreciates the exception given to him and followed the orders given. As you can see these young men did as I told them because I made them known why it couldn't happen as they want but could happen under some conditions. It is all about compromise so just make sure to not tell a straight no. 

That's all for this week, Master Takashi Shirogane signing off.


	3. Lesson 2 - Connecting with your protegee.

My parents died when I was a little boy and left me alone with a whole farm to look after and a raising evil that didn't care about my people, only the money and benefits we could provide them. I spent a year and a half looking after myself and learned the hard way that adults shouldn't be completely trusted, yes you can accept their help and help them in return but never give them the full power of you or your feelings. 

When Master Alfor took me in and recruited me in the brotherhood I didn't let go of this rule, I trained and pulled my own weight and tried to prove to anyone that looked at me the wrong way that I was capable of greatness and all I needed was a change. But can you say that a seven-year-old orphan who lived in fear for the last years and then was raised in a military base and kept at an arm's length will develop a healthy relationship with his peers and teammates? I don't think so. 

The ways of the old brotherhood are exactly why Zarkon left and betrayed us. He didn't have any close relationship with anyone, no family nor friends, just co-workers and subordinates who kept their interaction minimal so when Minerva came and offered him love and companionship, he was more than ready to follow her to the end of the world. This is a lesson for all of us. 

We must try our best to connect with our recruits and protegees and encourage them to form healthy bonds with their peers, we also must look out for those who had a rough life before coming to the brotherhood and offer them some help or at least an ear to hear. 

You know Keith, he is normally classified as a "problem child" but in reality, he has one of the most tragic stories out there: his mother abandoned him, his father was away most of the time and died when Keith was four, his home and safe place was raid and burned to the ground, he was kidnapped and experimented on for the last decade, then he is rescued and discovers that his only remaining family is alive but can't look after him anymore, then he is diagnosed with the bleeding effect and anxiety and then gets thrown back into this war before he can even have a breath out of it. 

You can expect him to have some trust issues. So, what to do about it? how do we approach these kids with issues? 

Easy. Stop the negativity. Stop shaming, yelling, hurting or publicly punishing them and please stop the name-calling, that is a popular one around those with power over others and it needs to stop. The goal is to create a safe place for them, and yeah I'm aware that we are at war and that you may think that making a recruit feel safe is a waste of time since they knew what they were signing for when they became assassins but making a safe place isn't a one child thing, is a mindset that you must apply to all your recruits and although it is difficult I know you can't do it, after all, you were put in charge of these kids for a reason. 

I'll continue with Keith as an example but don't make any ideas on how he is a favourite or anything, this is an example of how I manage my teenager team. 

A few days ago I was training with Keith so I could provide him with the rank of Master assassin before any recruit came in, it was a long day and we had trained for a little over 5 hours before I called a stop and I'm ashamed of my choice of words but when he refused to stop I couldn't help but snap and said: "See, this is exactly the problem, you try and try but your head is too thick to understand when rest is necessary or when simply you can't do it because you aren't that good of a fighter as you think you are." 

If I could erase his expression from my memory: the shock and flinch that came with it, wide eyes staring at me before completely closing off, eyes close with his head low and shoulders trying to protect himself. God, I'm such an asshole. I try to apologize but it was too late, he already made his mind about being a failure and being to fucked up to even function properly, it took me days and even weeks before he moved on from the event and lowered his walls for me to pass through. 

I learned my lesson and tried to do something about it the next time I feel like snapping: take a moment that you treasure about your recruit, maybe the moment when you decided to take them into the brotherhood or that day that they did exceptionally well on a training routine and you thought you couldn't feel prouder about this kid. Take that memory of them and each time you are feeling like slapping some sense onto them take a deep breath and think of that moment and how you don't want to lose the trust that kid has given you. 

For me, it is a time when Keith was younger and he used his first hidden blade in practice like it was second nature to him, and when he stood up and looked at me, he gave me this bright smile of a boy who is proud of who he is and what he has done, knowing everyone else is too. 

He has taken into drinking after everything that has happened and I don't stop him, but when it's late at night and he is too drunk to be coherent I remember that time and I just take him to bed and nurture him until he is sober and I can talk some sense onto him, trying to make him reduce his consume. He does listen to me and cuts the drinking but some days are worse than others and that's when the lesson has to be repeated. 

I hope this guide is helpful to you and your team. Remember "Patience yields focus" 

Master Takashi Shirogane, singing off.


End file.
